SAAB 9-3 - Problems, Statistics, and Analysis

SAAB 9-3 owners have reported a total of 1,645 problems for their cars built in the
13 model years
listed in the chart below.
The chart shows the number of problems reported across all service years for each given model year of the SAAB 9-3.
The 2003 SAAB 9-3 cars have the most problems reported (312 problems).

Table 1. Total number of problems by model year for SAAB 9-3

Common problems of SAAB 9-3

The following chart shows the 24 most common problems for SAAB 9-3 cars.
The number one most common problem is related to the vehicle's air bags
(352 problems).
The second most common problem is related to the vehicle's electrical system (217 problems).

Compare Reliability Across Model Years Using PPMY Index

It would not be fair to compare the SAAB 9-3 of an older model year to newer model years
since older vehicles have been in service longer and thus are expected to have more problems.
In order to compare the reliability across 9-3 model years, we use the PPMY index which is defined as the
problems reported per thousand vehicles per Year.
A smaller PPMY index indicates greater reliability of the given model year cars.

PPMY = P / S / Y * 1000,

where P = total problems reported during the life of a SAAB 9-3 model year;
S = total units sold of the model year; Y = years since the debut of the model year (the age of the vehicle).